A mother-of-three has beaten 5,000 others to win the chance to become a racing driver.

Brenda Davies, 54, will be joining six other regional finalists on the race track at Silverton next month.

If she wins, Brenda - the only woman in the Dunlop Race Academy 2006 competition - will go through to the final, with the chance to compete in the Dunlop Drivers Cup in October and jet off on a luxury trip to Monaco.

Brenda, a project management assistant for a medical research company, from Fairview Terrace, Twynyrodyn, Merthyr Tydfil, who entered the competition on the internet, said: 'My children think I'm mad. They think it's quite funny because I'm quite a safe driver.

'But they are envious as well.

'It's a dream, an opportunity to do something completely different and I'll be doing my best to win.